Stories Of Success During Hard Times

• No Comments
• Inspire

At Lily of Light we like to help people stay inspired and motivated. A many of you have may experience this past year or even in 2008, the economy has hit home for many people.  I read this article on Reader’s Digest, that they call ” Recession Success Stories.” The one that I have included was one that I found to be very interesting, and also inspiring. It makes me realize how much we can be in control of our lives, and not stuck having to always worry about what to do next.

My husband, Michael, an attorney and a co-owner of a real estate development company, came home from work one day and said, “It’s not looking good.” In the middle of the night, I’d wake up and see him sitting in a chair, with his hand on his forehead. I was worried. I wanted to cheer him up and help us financially.

I’ve been a corporate consultant for years, brainstorming ideas for top companies such as Campbell’s and Mars. I also teach creative thinking at the college level. I thought, What if we embarked on an adventure and monetized it? As a family, we’d always talked about traveling more, but we’d been tied to routines. Now I saw no point in sitting around worrying when we could see the country. We’d take our kids, Aidan, 11, Charlie, 8, and Rosie, 6, out of school and teach them on the road. It was the perfect time, before they reached high school. We’d rent out our house. Continue Reading

Giving This Holiday Season

• No Comments
• Inspire

Tis the season for giving. It’s the holiday seasons again, and with it comes the time to offer peace, joy, and love. Dispite the economic struggles that many of us have when thru this year, many are still making an effort to help others who may be less fortunate. Our family is a huge supporter for toy drives and other organizations like Loaves and Fishes. If you would like to give this year here are a few great ideas!

Toy Drives – What Are They?

Toys are collected by volunteers and are distributed to a variety of different charities such as women’s and children’s shelters. Toy drives are often run by non-profit organizations such as the Salvation Army, Toys for Tots and the United Way. They’re held in communities all over North America during the holidays, usually a few weeks before Christmas. Ideally, toys are donated unwrapped so that organizers can give them to the appropriate children.

Toy Drives – Help Out in Your Community

Visiting your local community center is a great way to find out where the toy drives are happening this year. Alternately, search the web for a site which allows you to type in your zip or postal code, finding the toy drives in your area. If you don’t have the money to spend on buying a toy, offer to donate your time by helping to sort and hand out toys at a church or TV station, which often hold toy drives at Christmas.

Toy Drives – Help Out at Home

Many children help give a toy to a local charity instead of buying you a Christmas present. It makes a huge difference in one child’s Christmas.

Adopt a family

This is always a rewarding way to give back. I have done this a few years in a row, and have always had a great and rewarding time helping. Make sure you do some research about reputable organizations that help these families. A good source is Salvation Army.

Give your help for homeless and seniors

Ever city has an organization such as Loaves and Fishes, or Meals On Wheels that help feed the homeless and also help nourish the seniors.

Budwig Cottage Cheese And Flaxseed Recipe

• No Comments
• Wellness

The Flaxseed (Linseed) oil diet was originally proposed by Dr. Johanna Budwig, a German biochemist and expert on fats and oils, in 1951.  Dr. Budwig holds a Ph.D. in Natural Science, has undergone medical training, and was schooled in pharmaceutical science, physics, botany and biology. She is best known for her extensive research on the properties and benefits of flaxseed oil combined with sulphurated proteins in the diet, and over the years has published a number of books on the subject, including “Cancer–A Fat Problem,” “The Death of the Tumor,” and “True Health Against Arteriosclerosis, Heart Infarction & Cancer.”

Dr. Budwig found that the blood of seriously ill cancer patients was deficient in certain important essential ingredients which included substances called phosphatides and lipoproteins, while the blood of a healthy person always contains sufficient quantities of these essential ingredients.

She found that when these natural ingredients where replaced over approximately a three month period, tumors gradually receded, weakness and anemia disappeared and life energy was restored. Symptoms of cancer, liver dysfunction and diabetes were alleviated.

Source: Cancer Cure Foundation

I have heard for many years about the Budwig diet, and happen to come across an article recently that was talking about it. I know it has been studied and reviewed for over 40 years with success. I have no personal experience with the diet its self, but I thought it would be interesting to post a video explaining how to make the flaxseed and cottage cheese recipe that Budwig is famous for. Feel free to leave comments if you have further to add about the diet.

Don’t Worry Let Wisdom Guide You

• No Comments
• Inspire

“Don’t waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Norman Vincent Peale said, “You are not what you think you are; but what you think, you are.” If we follow this philosophy, then most of us are certifiable worry machines. Worry is our greatest energy drain. It distorts our thinking and stops all forward action. Can you control worrying?

First let’s make a distinction between worrying and concern. Concern is acknowledging a problem and taking steps to correct it. Worrying is going around in circles, fretting, not thinking, or taking action.

Changing your behavior is a good thing. But sometimes changing your behavior is merely changing what you are doing, and what really matters is changing what you are thinking. Our thinking directs our emotional reaction, which in turn directs our behavior. The way we react to a situation is not just a representation of the events; our reaction also depends on what we think the events mean.

In an article on cognition and behavior, Dr. John W. Bush illustrates how thinking affects our behavior as follows. A friend is an hour late to meet you. Depending on what you think happened (i.e., she was in an accident, she’s rude, I wanted to do something else anyway), you might be worried, annoyed, relieved, etc. These feelings (ignited by the thoughts) will then dictate how you react, i.e. calling the police, having angry words for her, or being glad she bailed on you. Notice how directly your thoughts affected how you felt and then directed the actions you took. Continue Reading

How Our Skin Relates To Our Health

• No Comments
• Wellness

Researchers from the universities of Bristol and St. Andrews in the UK have found that the color of a person’s skin affects how healthy and therefore attractive they appear, and have found that diet may be crucial to achieving the most desirable complexion. The work will be published in the December issue of Springer’s International Journal of Primatology.

Using specialist computer software, a total of 54 Caucasian participants of both sexes were asked to manipulate the skin color of male and female Caucasian faces to make them look as healthy as possible. They chose to increase the rosiness, yellowness and brightness of the skin.

“Most previous work on faces has focused on the shape of the face or the texture of the skin, but one of the most variable characteristics of the face is skin color,” said Dr. Ian Stephen who is now at the University of Bristol.

“We knew from our previous work that people who have more blood and more oxygen color in their skins looked healthy, and so we decided to see what other colors affect health perceptions. This has given us some clues as to what other skin pigments may relate to a healthy appearance.”

Skin that is slightly flushed with blood and full of oxygen suggests a strong heart and lungs, supporting the study’s findings that rosier skin appeared healthy. Smokers and people with diabetes or heart disease have fewer blood vessels in their skin, and so skin would appear less rosy.

The preference for more golden or ‘yellow-toned’ skin as healthier might be explained by the ‘carotenoid pigments’ that we get from the fruit and vegetables in our diet. These plant pigments are powerful antioxidants that soak up dangerous compounds produced when the body combats disease. They are also important for our immune and reproductive systems and may help prevent cancer. Continue Reading